 At this stage Tama-i-hara-nui returned from Kaikoura.Telling the people of Kaiapoi, who had ties with both sides, to stay out of the fight, he went on to Takapūneke and then to Wairewa (Little River), where he gathered a war party.From Wairewa an attack was launched on Taumutu, in which many of the people of that village were killed, including some Kaiapoi women married to men of Taumutu.